The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of New Guinea Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens hawkeri, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘KIE344’.
The new Impatiens is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Gensingen, Germany. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new Impatiens cultivars with numerous large flowers and attractive foliage and flower coloration.
The new Impatiens originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in November, 2000, of the Impatiens hawkeri cultivar Papete, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 8,457, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Impatiens hawkeri identified as code number 00-567, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar KIE344 was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Gensingen, Germany in March, 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings propagated in a controlled environment in Gensingen, Germany since May, 2001 has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.